Solar flares disturb the magnetic field surrounding the earth and cause a build up of electrons, that can damage satellites orbiting the earth, says researcher Rory Gamble, a PhD student of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand,

He says previous research suggested radio waves could be used to dissipate this build up of charge, by discharging electrons into the atmosphere.

But, says Gamble, scientists always thought this would need to be done from space. The latest research shows it would be possible to do this from the ground.

Chance observation

Gamble and colleagues were using the research satellite DEMETER to investigate the behaviour of the magnetosphere when they picked up some interesting observations directly over the North West Cape military transmitter in Western Australia.

"We were able to determine that this transmitter has a direct effect on the electrons in the radiation belts [in the magnetosphere]," says Gamble.

"[It caused] those electrons to crash into the top of the atmosphere and be removed from the radiation belts."

He says this is the first study to show humans could control electrons in the magnetosphere from earth.

Gamble says specially-designed radio transmitters could be aimed towards to sky to dissipate the electrons, once a solar flare was detected.

According to NASA, the next period of intense solar activity, or solar maximum, is expected to be one of the most intense cycles since record-keeping began almost 400 years ago.